Posted on 10/18/2002 1:14:51 AM PDT by kattracks
Edited on 05/26/2004 5:09:36 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
October 18, 2002 -- A NON-STOP frenzy of psychological profiling has been gushing out of televisions, newspapers, and magazines since the start of the "Sniper Killings" in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., earlier this month, producing in almost every case a rather too pat portrait of a killer (or perhaps two) who are white, in their 20s or early 30s, have military experience, enjoy exercising the god-like power of life and death, and are alienated from society.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I rebuff this symbolism theory of "9 killed, 11 shootings". What if the other two had died? What if only 8 of the 11 died? Would there have been shootings between the Seven Corners hit Mon. night and now?
foreverfree
The death of the target is not the intent. The death of the targeted victim is merely the vehicle used to instill fear and panic in the rest of us. Whether freelance or state-sponsored, this is the very essence of terrorism.
They are, but they weren't.
Linda worked for the National Infrastructure Protection Center, which mainly deals with cybercrime. It is relatively speaking an obscure geek-type technical role, and to my understanding she was not an agent.
This is a very important article!
Thank you Caleb Carr and The New York Post!
This is better comment than CNN and ALL the T.V. PC trash!
Hats Off to The New York Post and Mr. Caleb Carr!
Thanks,.....for keeping a free print press with open/intelligent perspectives before the American public!!
PRINT IT!...................................BTTT
This is not necessarily true. Terrorist are cunning (like animals), and for most of them the object is to commit the crime and not be caught! The 9/11 attacks set a new standard, mode of operation for airline hijackings by using the hijacked plane as a weapon. Who's to say that the terrorists haven't changed the way they carry out sniper attacks as well?
Think she might have been working on this project: U.S. Pinpoints Top Al Qaeda Financiers ? One of the articles about Franklin's murder just happened to mention that the FBI is involved in this project.
There were still plenty of LE officials and officers around, as well as news trucks.
Interesting is that the school on the opposite (westbound) side of Rt. 50 seems to have become an area of LE interest. This is a Fairfax County public school exactly opposite the HD, with a large parking lot and a grassy hill. The entire area of the hill was surrounded with Crime Scene tape. Many of you may have seen the news video yesterday of police cadets searching a parking lot area. That is the school parking lot.
The interesting thing about this lot is that it affords a direct line-of-sight into the 5th inside lane of the HD parking lot (I believe that's where the shooting took place), as well as a direct, unobstructed line-of-sight to the main entrance/exit of the store.
Having lived in the area for a number of years, I'm pretty certain that the school parking lot is completely unlit at night, as is the area immediately surrounding it. It is dark as dark can be. Also, the entrance into the lot is a mere 15 feet from the entrance ramp onto Rt. 50. I can't imagine it would take more than 10 seconds to exit from a shooting position in the lot onto westbound Rt. 50, which is not an interstate but certainly a high-speed (45-50 MPH) state road.
From the lot (it's not taped off as a crime scene), I then took a closer at the access road on the opposite side of the Rt. 50, just on the outside of the HD parking lot. This is the only spot where witnesses could realistically have ID'd suspects, vehicles, or anything else (as I said, the school parking lot would have been pitch black, and is 100 yards across the road, no one in the HD parking lot could possibly have seen anything whatsoever from that distance).
If in that access road, it looked as if the shooter might in fact have needed to exit their vehicle in order to aim into the 5th lane of the HD parking lot. Also, there's a small rise/hill, and they may have actually needed to walk up that rise perhaps 5 to 10 feet.
So the bottom line is that the access road just outside the Home Depot lot seems a very bad choice, and not consistent with previous shootings which have been in the 100 yard range according to news reports.
The conclusion from this is that the school parking lot on westbound Rt. 50 provided the ideal line-of-sight into the HD parking lot, is in cover of complete darkness, and provided immediate egress onto Rt. 50. On the other hand, the access road just outside the HD parking lot is well-lit, seems inconvenient from a positioning point-of-view, and has relatively tricky egress routes.
Bottom line: because of the darkness and distance, the school lot would have provided no witness opportunities, whereas a shooter on the HD access road would have been completely exposed and provided many witness sightings.
It seems to me inconceivable that the shooter would have broken so severely from established pattern to use the HD access road, and entirely consistent that he/they would have used the school parking lot.
Finally, I did speak with several other locals who were observing just as I was. Everyone without exception believed the shooter had used the school parking lot, and they had thought so since the moment they first heard of the shooting on the news. Standing there on the scene, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that their initial and imnmediate impression had been correct: the shot was taken from the school.
If that is true, none of the "witness accounts" make a lot of sense, because the shooter was 100+ yards away, in pitch black darkness, and within 10 feet of three separate egress choices. He/they would have been gone within 30 seconds.
My previous thinking on this was dictated by the purported "witness acounts". Having now looked at the scene, and with at least one account being entirely dismissed, I'd say that they're all quite suspect if not entirely wrong.
2) NIPC in the entirety is supposed to be placed under Homeland Security.
3) She could have been working anything relating to cybercrime, as NIPC is a part of the FBI. That could include Nigerian bank frauds, cyber-extortion, hacking attempts into banks, or offshore gambling frauds. Literally, it could have been anything.
that is exactly what i thought when i heard of the shooting as well. That school was my polling place when i lived over there and the lot is always deserted, and you are correct, completely unlit.
Sadly, I don't share your optimism on a U.S. reaction to a terrorist cell being responsible for the sniper killings. The first thing the sheeple will be told is not to profile nor discriminate against our fellow citizens who appear Mideastern.
Secondly, the government will do absolutely NOTHING to close the borders; remember, 3000 deaths and two massive edifices were terminated and the borders are still open.
As an addenum, my brother does work out in Gainesville, and knows the Sunoco where the Manassas shooting took place.
He drove by several days ago and did some observing.
I don't know that area very well, but he said there is a Petco (?) and a Bob Evans restaurant directly across the street (Rt. 234?) from the Sunoco. He drove up to the restaurant and noted that between those two buildings is a driveway providing a perfect line-of-sight into the Sunoco. Since that shooting was at 9:30PM, he thought it would be quite dark in the driveway.
So it looks as if the shooters have a consistent MO, and they select their position very carefully.
What boggles my mind is that the police have this information from ballistics evidence (that is, the line-of-sight, shooting direction and probably distance) and they say nothing about it to the public.
Seems to me they should be warning to public to report any strange sightings of vehicles pulling into darkened across the street from shopping centers, gas stations, etc.
Why? Because the leaders of the country and many of the people so STRONGLY want things to be the way 'they used to be', they cannot embrace change or consider the unthinkable. It is almost as if they fiercely WANT it to NOT be terrorism, but that has no effect upon the objective actions of a terrorist cell committed to our destruction.
It is a good case study in human discomfort with 'Change' and propensity for 'Denial'.
In fact, "The United States of Denial" might be a more fitting title now.
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